In many conveyor systems, particularly those in large article shipping or transfer terminals, the volume of articles to be handled is increasing steadily. To accommodate this, space has been increased, mechanization has been increased and the rate at which each individual article is processed has been increased. The increased volume, if it is not to require a substantial increase in terminal area and personnel and thus unit cost of handling, has to be handled by new types of equipment capable of substantially higher operating speeds. To avoid this, each step in the process must be handled more efficiently to avoid increased handling time. To do this, the throughput of articles must be accelerated to handle the volume. This invention accomplishes this by providing an article unscrambler having a significantly increased throughput capacity. It incorporates means by which the articles can be effectively discharged in a single column at a substantially higher rate per minute without the necessity of increasing the length of the unit or it can be used to handle a somewhat lesser increase in volume with a substantially reduced unit length.